Ecclesiastes Part III

Ecclesiastes Part III

     This is the third and final posting for the questions for the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a mournful and depressing book, much like many in the Bible, but the difference I find with Ecclesiastes is its depth of depression that very obviously originates with the horribly hopeless idea that EVERYTHING is meaningless. Remember, this absurd and deeply melancholy notion of meaninglessness is in text that is supposed to be inspired by God. You might think that a God of everlasting love and immutable beauty would be more adept to something more along the lines of shining inspiration, truly happy words that uplift and encourage. I guess not.

1. Ecclesiastes 10:4

     4 If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offenses to rest.

Questions

     1. If calmness can lay great offenses to rest why doesn't it work when it comes to the anger of God when He thinks people have really offended Him? 

     2. People pray and plead and put on sackcloth and all kinds of shit, and does God reign in His anger? Sure, after He promotes a new pestilence, kills a couple of really innocent people, ravages the crops, and causes a mighty flood that kills a b-zillion people, right?

     3. Do not leave your post. Does this infer that people should not forsake their belief in God, even when really screwy things happen because God is supposedly angry? If they stay at their POST and maintain their belief is that supposed to bring the calmness that gives rest to their supposed offenses?

2. Ecclesiastes 10:11

     11 If a snake bites before it is charmed, the charmer receives no fee.

Questions

     1. What about the greatest snake charmer of them all, God? What about Him? Why should God receive His fee of glory when He fucks up everything He does from the very start? 

     2. God creates this innocent man and woman in the Garden of Eden and they make a huge mistake, yet they don't know any better because they don't know about good and evil and disobedience because God didn't create them with such knowledge. So, God's planning and creation fails from the very freaking beginning and He punishes man for God's bullshit mistake and STILL tries to collect on his fee of glory?

3. Ecclesiastes 10:20

     20 Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the sky may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

Questions

     1. Sooo, God/the Lord is the ultimate Big Brother, isn't He? Be careful of what you say because a little bird might go back and report what you said to someone who just might put your ass in a sling? So much for being born free.

4. Ecclesiastes 11:3

     3 If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Questions

     1. Sure, in the place where the tree falls it will lie, but when it falls and there is no one around to hear it fall does it still make a sound?

5. Ecclesiastes 11:5

     5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Questions

     1. Isn't it true that we now know the patterns of the wind on the earth and what causes the wind?

     2. Isn't it true that we now know how a fetus develops within a woman's body?

     3. If we now know these things then wouldn't it stand to reason we CAN understand the work of God?

6. Ecclesiastes 11:8-10

     8 However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

     9 You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

     10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.

Questions

     1. What do the days of darkness matter if everything to come is meaningless?

     2. If everything to come is meaningless and if the judgment is part of what is to come, doesn't it also make sense that the judgment would be meaningless as well?

     3. Verse ten says to cast off troubles and banish anxiety, but what do these things matter if everything is meaningless?

     4. Why banish anxiety and cast off troubles when Ecclesiastes 7:3 says that frustration is better than laughter and a sad face is good for the heart?

7. Ecclesiastes 12:14

     14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Questions

     1. Ecclesiastes 12:8 says that everything is meaningless. This is not the only verse that states such. In fact, much of Ecclesiastes is about everything being meaningless. If everything is meaningless, why in the world would God judge anything?

     2. If something is meaningless is it still worthy to be judged? If so WHY?

     3. Would judging the meaningless be considered pointless? If God is judging the meaningless wouldn't He be behaving in a pointless manner? Why would a perfect divine being behave in a pointless manner?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1400096916&sr=8-3&keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://www.zazzle.com/smartytwoshoes

Job Part IV: Just a Few Questions

This is the second to last posting for the questions for the Book of Job in the Holy Bible. I hope you have been considering the answers to the questions as you have been reading them. I also hope that you will take the time to type in some of your answers in the comments section at the end of each posting.

1. Job 9:17

17 For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

Questions

1. Shouldn't this verse tell you there is something very wrong with this God?

2. Job 10:8

8 "'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

Questions

1. This says a lot about God, doesn't it? A God Who creates with the specific intent to destroy? Now...why would an all-powerful being do that? To play games with the helpless? To bring Himself glory through the forced worship of those He creates? For WHAT?

3. Job 11:6-8

6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

7 "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

8 They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

Questions

1. Isn't that just like religion to imply that there really isn't anything man can really know, seek, or do?

4. Job 11:11

11 For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn't consider it.

Questions

1. If God does indeed know falsehood and see iniquity without considering it then the first and last thing He must see in regard to such IS Himself, right?

5. Job 11:13

13 "If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

Questions

1. How can you set your heart right when God has taken it from your chest? How can you stretch out your hands when God has cut off your arms?

6. Job 12:23-25

23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Questions

1. Aren't these verses the bitter truth about this God of the Bible? Why is this God of Love concerned with destroying, leading astray, and causing to become lost without hope and help?

7. Job 14:1

1 "Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

Questions

1. Is this also a clue as to why God never speaks of His mother, why He harbors such great disdain for women?

8. Job 15:12

12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

Questions

1. Could it be because God is a diabolical bastard Who apparently lives to feed off the fear emitted by man?

https://sites.google.com/site/esterlighthorse/

http://noahsarkrevealed.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1387072632&sr=8-5&keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-And-Said-ebook/dp/B0090NKCJW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1387072632&sr=8-2&keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Confessions-Atheist-ebook/dp/B008FWBYY6/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1387072632&sr=8-8&keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Theologians-ebook/dp/B004LX0IOK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1387072632&sr=8-7&keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://www.zazzle.com/smartytwoshoes

I Kings Part VIII: Just a Few Questions

Doesn't it just get more and more interesting?

You know, once you start reading the Bible and actually paying attention to the words it really is a work of fiction that is extremely difficult to put down, isn't it?

1. I Kings 19:2-3

2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: "May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them."

3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there.

Questions

     1) Why was Elijah afraid of Jezebel after the LORD showed His mighty power when Elijah killed the 400 prophets?

2. I Kings 19:4-8

4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

Questions

     1) Sooo...God/the LORD will bring food cakes and water to His prophet, but will continue to play Hunger Games:Divine Edition with everyone else?

     2) Oh, look! The magical Bible number of forty...AGAIN. What, pray tell, does it mean here?

3. I Kings 19:10

10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Questions

     1) Now...just hold on a minute there, Elijah. Didn't you do some slaughtering yourself?

     2) And what the fuck did you expect, Elijah? Of course they are going to go after you, right?

4. I Kings 19:19-21

19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.

20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

21 And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

Questions

     1) Maybe some of the starvation is caused by the people killing off the plow animals?

5. I Kings 20:2-3

2 And he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad:

3 ‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your best wives and children also are mine.’”

Questions

     1) Sooo...what happens to the worst wives?

6. I Kings 20:27

27 When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.

Questions

     1) Sooo...now the people get to eat? Is it a reward for fighting?

7. I Kings 20:35-36

35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow at the command of the LORD, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him.

36 Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down.” And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion met him and struck him down.

Questions

     1) Sooo...God tells the man of God to tell the other guy to strike the man of God...and when the other guy refuses he gets a goddamn death sentence? WTF for?

     2) Why didn't God give His friggin message to the guy He wanted to hit the freaking man of God, hummm?

     3) Strike me, please? Oooohhh...because the PLEASE was supposed to let the guy who had no fucking clue what the hell was going on that he really WAS supposed to strike this man of GOD?

8. I Kings 20:37-38

37 Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” And the man struck him—struck him and wounded him.

38 So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes.

Questions

     1) Sooo...was allowing the man who struck the man of God to live a reward for going along with the little conspiracy?

     2) God has a prophet DISGUISE himself? How fucking nonsense is this shit?

     3) Why does God even find it necessary to TRICK anyone to begin with, right? I mean, if someone is in disguise they DO intend to TRICK someone, don't they?

9. I Kings 20:40-42

40 And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.”

41 Then he hurried to take the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

42 And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’”

Questions

     1) Oh, look! More of God's trickery, right?

     2) By the way...why in the HELL did God tell this prophet of His to tell another man to strike him if all he needed to do was wrap the goddamn bandage around his fucking head so the king wouldn't see who it freaking was under there? Did he need a bloody bandage? Shit, man...all you gotta do is roll that bandage on the dead bodies, right?

10. I Kings 21:8-10

8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city.

9 And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.

10 And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.

Questions

     1) God essentially did the same thing to Pharaoh when He robbed Pharaoh's free will and made him do shit he wouldn't have done BUT for what God did, so how is this any less acceptable?

     2) Is it not acceptable because God didn't do it?

11. I Kings 21:27-29

27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.

28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house.”

Questions

     1) Ahhh...so is what we have here another case of one person paying for another's sin, hummm? Sooo...the son will get to pay?

     2) And what the hell does Ahab expect to help by tearing his clothing, dumping dirt on his head, starving himself, and going about with a long face? Has it REALLY worked for anyone before? Does he really think God gives a flying fuck whether or not he is happy or sad?

12. I Kings 22:10

10 King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on thrones at the threshing floor near the gate of Samaria. All of Ahab's prophets were prophesying there in front of them.

Questions

     1) I wonder what the hell kind of noise was made with all of the prophets there going on at once, right? I mean, were they ALL sounding like they were speaking in tongues like that Kenneth Hagin moron, or what?

13. I Kings 22:38

38 And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the LORD that he had spoken.

Questions

     1) Why so degrading? Does it make God feel that much better about Himself?

14. I Kings 22:40

40 So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.

Questions

     1) Ahab slept with his fathers? You mean like Jimmy Hoffa and Davey Jones sleep with the fishes?

http://shoon4774-thegreatestlieevertold.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-does-god-win.html

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ester+lighthorse

https://sites.google.com/site/esterlighthorse/

http://www.zazzle.com/smartytwoshoes

II Samuel Part III: Just a Few Questions

Never a Dull Moment for the LORD's Chosen

Well, as we come to the close of our questions for the book of II Samuel, surely you have seen that things really don't seem all that hot for the chosen people of God. Why is that?

1. II Samuel 16:21-22

21 Ahithophel told him, "Go and sleep with your father's concubines, for he has left them here to look after the palace. Then all Israel will know that you have insulted your father beyond hope of reconciliation, and they will throw their support to you."

22 So they set up a tent on the palace roof where everyone could see it, and Absalom went in and had sex with his father's concubines.

Questions

     1) What the hell kind of advisor gives his leader this type of advice?

     2) How was it that Absalom did not realize this was like the worst advice to take?

     3) Courage will win the respect of people. Since when does shaming do the same?

2. II Samuel 18:18

18 During his lifetime, Absalom had built a monument to himself in the King's Valley, for he said, "I have no son to carry on my name." He named the monument after himself, and it is known as Absalom's Monument to this day.

Questions

     1) Oh my, but don't we have yet another biblical SNAFU here? Absalom said he had no son to carry on his name? Really?

   2) Doesn't II Samuel 14:27 clearly say that three sons and a daughter were born unto Absalom?

     3) Did Absalom's sons die?

3. II Samuel 20:3

3 When David came to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to look after the palace and placed them in seclusion. Their needs were provided for, but he no longer slept with them. So each of them lived like a widow until she died.

Questions

     1) Sooo...these women were placed into seclusion because of what Absalom did? The women pay for the shame of what Absalom did? Is that supposed to be balanced?

4. II Samuel 20:21-22

21 That's not my purpose. All I want is a man named Sheba son of Bicri from the hill country of Ephraim, who has revolted against King David. If you hand over this one man to me, I will leave the town in peace." "All right," the woman replied, "we will throw his head over the wall to you."

22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off Sheba's head and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the ram's horn and called his troops back from the attack. They all returned to their homes, and Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem.

Questions

     1) Throw his head over the wall? This was considered wise advice?

5. II Samuel 21:1

1 There was a famine during David's reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the LORD about it. And the LORD said, "The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites."

Questions

     1) Sooo...because of something Saul and his family has done the ENTIRE people get to suffer from famine? And people who are believers wonder why other people want nothing to do with this pathological God of theirs?

6. II Samuel 21:2

2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out.

Questions

     1) Sooo...did Saul know of the agreement to not kill the Gibeonites?

    2) Did anyone ever try to stop Saul from killing the Gibeonites and explain to him why he should stop?

     3) Did the LORD ever take Saul aside and tell him to stop killing the Gibeonites, or did the LORD just decide to allow for a famine and eventually someone would have the marbles to ask why the famine was happening?

7. II Samuel 21:5-6

5 Then they replied, "It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel.

6 So let seven of Saul's sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the LORD at Gibeon, on the mountain of the LORD." "All right," the king said, "I will do it.

Questions

     1) Well, it seems as though the rules of atonement to not get any better when asking humans instead of the LORD, right?

     2) Nothing like laying the groundwork for the ridiculousness of Jesus dying for sins He never committed, right? Here we have the wrong that Saul committed, and SOMEBODY has to pay for it so we are going to put these guys to death. Is that how it goes?

8. II Samuel 21:9

9 The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the LORD. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Questions

   1) Sooo...is executing people for things they did not do okay since the executions supposedly took place before the LORD?

     2) How did the people know the LORD was there watching? How did they know for sure He was there?

     3) Why does God watch people die?

9. II Samuel 22:3

3 my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence.

Questions

     1) The one who saves you from violence? You're kidding, right?

     2) Your God is a rock? You mean like talking to a rock when you need help and He won't help you, or when He will not listen and stop killing those who have done nothing wrong?

     3) He is your refuge and savior? You mean so long as you do all of the dastardly things He asks you to do, right?

10. II Samuel 24:15

15 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men.

Questions

     1) Sooo...the LORD murders 70,000 people as a punishment upon Israel? Maybe this could be part of the problem why the people of Israel will never number as the stars of the heavens, right? I mean, Jesus Christ! God keeps killing them in large numbers.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ester+lighthorse

http://shoon4774-thegreatestlieevertold.blogspot.com/

http://www.zazzle.com/smartytwoshoes

https://sites.google.com/site/wiseonecartooncreations/

http://www.zazzle.com/biblical_myth_periodic_table_of_elements_posters-228084324809883766

http://toleratingaggressivereligioushumor.blogspot.com/